1783 Carolus III

Wow, nice info!

I think I see what you are talking about on the edge. It can be found just above the "III" around 10 o'clock in the obverse picture and again at around the 2 o'clock position above the "I dot G". Not exactly 180 degrees. Is this what I'm looking for?

There's similar to what looks like the blakesley's effect (for lack of a better term) in those positions.

If legit, then these sound fairly common, but still fun! What about composition?

Thanks for your help!

The El Cazador wreck has provided fertile ground for forgeries.

The coins are of such low value that they typically trade as silver - but knock offs are numerous. Make sure your coin is NOT MAGNETIC.

On a lark the dealer I work for submitted two FORGERIES of this coin to ANACS. Both had clear traces of edge seams and were underweight. They were silver but the SG was way off. I had called them cast forgeries based on my personal examination.

ANACS encapsulated them and ATTRIBUTED them to the El Cazador wreck with ABSOLUTELY NO PROOF (they did it without our request) and they graded the two coins at VF30. I called ANACS immediately and spoke to a person who was identified as the primary grader for foreign coins. He indicated that they DO NOT LOOK AT THE EDGE when grading. He also indicated that for low end material like those coins they typically spend less than a minute on the entire process. He asked that we resubmit the coins.

So is this one real? Personally, I really can't be 100% positive BUT with NO ORIGINAL SURFACES PRESENT how can anyone actually be sure. I vote for a modern cast fake.